October 9, 2025 • 29 mins
For the past 15 years, Kristian has been driving healthcare innovation across the U.S., Europe, and Asia.In 2005, he founded Mendor, a company that developed a groundbreaking glucose monitor for people with Type 1 diabetes which earned 1st place in Deloitte’s Rising Stars award, Finland in 2014.During his time building Mendor, Kristian experienced the tragic loss of his older brother Peter to suicide, a turning point that inspired him to found Meru Health in 2016—a company redefining mental health care for the modern world.
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In This Episode
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-trauma-therapist--5739761/support.
You can learn more about what I do here:
The Trauma Therapist Newsletter: celebrates the people and voices in the mental health profession. And it's free! Check it out here: https://bit.ly/4jGBeSa
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If you’d like to support The Trauma Therapist Podcast and the work I do you can do that here with a monthly donation of $5, $7, or $10: Donate to The Trauma Therapist Podcast.
Click here to join my email list and receive podcast updates and other news.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Trauma Therivers podcast. My name is Guimingferson
and I interview incredible people who share the story of
how trauma has shaped their lives. And a big thank
you for sponsoring today's episode goes to my guest and
our sponsors. So five four, three, two and one, our folks,
(00:24):
welcome back to the podcast. Very excited to have as
my guest today. Christian Ranta. Christian, welcome, Thanks so much, guy,
I appreciate it. Thanks for having me all right. For
the past fifteen years, Christian has been driving healthcare innovation
across the US, Europe, and Asia. In two thousand and five,
he founded Mendor, a company that developed the groundbreaking glucose
monitor for people with type one diabetes, which earned the
(00:47):
first place in Delawat's Rising Stars Award in twenty fourteen.
During his time building Vendor, Christian experienced the tragic loss
of his older brother Peter to suicide, a turning point
that inspired him to found Meror Health in twenty sixteen,
a company now redefining mental health care for the modern world. Christian,
(01:07):
before we get going, once again, thank you for being
here to share with the listeners where you're from. Originally
and where you are currently?
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (01:15):
Sure, so I'm from Finland originally. I'm actually from Helsinki,
the capital of Finland. I was born and raised there.
I went to school there, studying in the UK for
some time, but I did my undergrad and graduate studies
in computer science and information systems mainly in Finland.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Okay, And is that where you are currently?
Speaker 3 (01:36):
Sorry, I'm currently in San Mateo in the you know,
in the San Francisco Oay. I've been leaving here since
twenty seventeen.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
Okay, So the obviously the bio gives us a sketch
of your background, but let's dive a little deeper here.
Talk about how you started getting into this field innovating
founding companies, and then we'll talk about what led you
(02:05):
to mental health.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
Sure, so, I mean like, I've been a technology enthusiast
from day one pretty much, and I actually joined when
I was still at school. I joined a clinical trial
software company that was building software for pharmaceutical companies to
conduct clinical trials in a more data driven way and
collect more data to get better insights for drug development
(02:30):
than approval processes. And basically that that was like an
eye opener for me, I got so excited, like that
was basically a place where you could combine technology while
doing good things to help people, you know, with healthcare,
And that really like hit the spot for me, and
I realized that this is going to be my career.
And after two years working for that company, after I
(02:51):
graduated from university, I actually then left the company and
founded my first own company, which was a medical device,
you know, the one that you mentioned. Look, I was
monitoring for type one diabetes patients.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Okay, so pretty amazing in and of itself. What was
the company called the Pharmaceutical Clinical Trial Company?
Speaker 2 (03:15):
What was that called CRF Health.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
CRF, and is that still in existence?
Speaker 3 (03:21):
It's nowadays called Signant Health, si NA and t Health.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
So it was crfalth.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
Okay. So now, obviously feel comfortable to talk about what
you want or you know, to the degree you want
and don't want, But can you talk a little bit
about your brother in his situation? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (03:42):
Sure?
Speaker 3 (03:43):
So yeah, So I mean, like that's that's what real
sparked me into mental health care. Why I wanted to
like move from physical health to mental health care. So
I sold my last company in twenty fifteen and then
wanted to go into mental health care full on. And
my brother, you know, he was unfortunately struggling from depression
on and off, and he had like some pretty severe
(04:04):
bouts and he was actually getting access to care like
he was he had you know, he had medication for
for years, and unfortunately, eventually the medication really made him,
made him worse, and he really didn't benefit. He got
a lot worse and then ended up committing suicide unfortunately.
So that was something which is kind of truly of
(04:27):
course very dramatic, but that truly changed me in a way,
that situation and the events there, that kind of thinking
about like what's really working in this system, Like so
many people are on these medications, and so many people
are doing therapy, and I mean, like now even much
more people doing therapy in the last five years, kind
of mental health becoming more mainstream, which is beautiful, but
(04:49):
like I really wanted to understand like what's going on
in mental health care. And I actually, before I founded
Mental Health, which is my current company, the Mental Health Company,
I actually went into like a lot of research myself,
so I really dug deep. I read a lot of literature,
like science journals, you know, clinical studies, of mental health
interventions meta analyzes. I really wanted to understand like what's
(05:12):
working in mental health care and what's not working and
where is psychiatry today because I wasn't like that familiar
with psychiatry. I'm not an MD, so I just like
really took a crash course in psychiatry and really wanted
to understand.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
And I talked to a lot.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
Of psychiatrists, like doctors, holistic doctors, integrative doctors, you know, professors, researchers, other.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
People going to therapy.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
I just did a lot of research for months, and
what I learned and realized was that actually was very
surprising that like, actually most people really don't get better
from medication. That there's only like roughly one third of
people who really respond to antidepressant medications, and then two
thirds sixty six percent do not, and they end up
(05:56):
like trying to find something else. And then like even
people who respond on the medication, most of them, like,
I don't know, between seventy to ninety percent. It's like
the data isn't like that accurate, but most people end
up getting side effects, either mild or very severe side effects.
And this is kind of like some of the things
that happened to my brother, and then it started clicking.
I was like, oh wow, like this like something that
(06:17):
we thought is actually so effective is really not effective
actually to be honest, if you look at the data honestly.
And then also what I realized is that when I
looked into therapy, I've done therapy myself. It was being
very very very beneficial for myself, and I really really
support therapy, and you know, we also offer therapy at
Mental Health, although with a lot of holistic elements included.
(06:40):
But what I realized also with therapy, when I looked
at the literature, there's great large meta analysis on like
psychotherapy CBT, DBT act all the different types of therapy,
and you know, they're usually equally effective, but they are
also really not that effective for clinical mental illness. They're
effective for psychological things and stress like kind of dealing
(07:00):
with life's challenges absolutely.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Can be very transformative.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
But like if we look at you know, the clinical
mental illness application of psychotherapy or talk therapy CBT, you know,
roughly forty percent of people will get at least a
fifty percent reduction for depression, meaning that like again, less
than half of the people who do psychotherapy for depression,
are really not getting like a real benefit from it.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
So one second, here are you talking about depression solely?
Speaker 2 (07:31):
This was like specifically data on depression.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
Then I looked anxiety and on the DSD and other things.
But what I'm just, I guess trying to say is
that it was a huge surprise to me when I
really kind of double clicked and dug into this industry
and into this science that actually what we consider like
something that's this is very effective. We have an effective
mental health system like bollocks like that gives my friends.
(07:54):
But that's not true, Like it's it's not true. It's
not working like we are. We're just like pretending that
it's working that well.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
So and that's what you know.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
My brother was lost to this thing, and I wanted
to I wanted to build something that could change this
because I think it's great. It helps you know, these
things may help some people. I again I mentioned I
benefited from therapy myself, but it's not like working for
a lot of people. And that's just that's just the data.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
What it says.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
When you started this journey of research, you said you
wanted to find out what was going on, what do
you mean specifically.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
Yeah, that's a good question.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
So I mean specifically that like what is what is
the current mental health system all about?
Speaker 2 (08:36):
You know, like why do we.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
Do therapy in the way we do, Why do we
prescribe the medications we do? Why is psychiatry the way
it is. I just like looked at the history and
like really dug deep to understand, like where's all this
is coming from? And I just realized that it all
started making more sense when I started digging deeper. And
one thing I also realized is that there's a complete
neglect of physical health implications in mental health.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
So, you know, the kind of disconnect.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
I'm sure many people have been, you know, hearing about
this lately or even a long time ago, that like
the mind that the body, you know, like the mind
is not separate from the body. So what I realized
is that mental health and psychiatry historically has completely ignored
the aspects of the physical health. So what I realized
is that there's actually a lot of research already out there.
(09:23):
It's not even reason that like inflammation in the body
got health issues, you know, in environmental toxins, heavy metals,
you know, in our you know, what we're constantly like
getting in from foods and anything, like you know, there's
the pregnant women shouldn't beating like tuna as an example. Unfortunately,
(09:43):
a lot of heavy metals, mercuries, things like this. I
started learning that all these things actually do make an
impact on mental health and also physical health. But like
the modern psychiatry is just completely ignoring all of this stuff.
So these were like some of the insights that came
to me, and like I was just baffled, like wow,
like this is something. And that's why I founded Mental Health,
(10:05):
which is basically like addressing all these things, and we
are a kind of a holistic mental health company, a
functional medicine approach.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
Okay, we're going to get into that now. When you're
speaking here, are you speaking about the mental health situation
in America or generally speaking across the world.
Speaker 3 (10:22):
I mean, like in the Western world. I mean it's
mainly the Western world, I'd say, I mean, like, of
course there's other areas where there's also mental illness, but
there's also rural there's actually this has also been researched,
and this is also pretty pretty fascinating. There's research by
one of our advisors doctor Marcus Rantala on like looking
at indigenous populations on some remote islands, like very isolated
(10:45):
populations that still live there today, and they have basically
zero mental illness, like zero, like nothing, and our western
population has like twenty five percent to thirty percent prevalence
of clinical mental health problems.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
Fascinating. So you go on this journey to find out
what the heck is going on with mental health. And
when you say mental health under that, you mean or
do you mean psychiatry is a branch talk therapy, somatic
therapies under that as well. So you got to a
(11:23):
point where you said, Okay, this is something's going on here,
What the hell is going on here? I want to
do something. How did merow health come about?
Speaker 3 (11:33):
Yeah, So from these realizations, I realized that like it
wasn't just my brother, that there's like coluntless my brother
is out there, quote unquote. So I realized that and
then basically, you know, figure it out that there's a
way from a lot of my previous learnings as an
entrepreneur and building medical devices and digital health applications, I
(11:54):
realized that there's a way to kind of build a
virtual clinic, an online clinic with real providers, where with
real therapists and psychiatrists and care navigators and people like that,
and couple that with technology and then build a curriculum
around that that would be more geared towards a holistic
education of mental health. What I mean by that is
(12:17):
that in addition or instead of just doing CBT, which
is something we also do because it's very effective and
very important, but how about like adding you know, some
basic information and understanding on diet, like what are like
brain health diets and what are like detrimental to brain
health and mental health. So like processed foods, we know
it really really well now that like the more processed
(12:39):
foods people assume, the more mental illness and physical illness
they have. And then you know, I just like combine
this as a whole with my co founders and with
couple of doctors. So we were roughly a five people
team initially some engineers, some you know, entrepreneurs, and then
one PhD MD psychiatrist, our first medical director. She had
(12:59):
done a lot of research on these topics as well,
and then we had a holistic MD more like an
integrative doctor, a primary care doctor, but with an integrative
training on top of that. So you know, we as
a team kind of came up with the initial concept
on how to build this and how to start how
to start addressing not only the mental health or the
(13:19):
cognitive sites of mental health problems, but go into also
the diet and sleep exercise recommendations. We've also built in
the biofeedback which is very effective for stress regulation. So
that's kind of like broadly where it all came from
and then how we started building it. And now we
operate in every state in the US as as a
telehealth provider or as an online mental health provider.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
Wow, in the wake of your research, what did you
come what kind of conclusion did you come to regarding
medication specifically for depression. Was that something you wanted to
improve upon or bann upon or we like, let's just
go a different route.
Speaker 3 (14:04):
Yeah, we we decided to go a different route. I mean,
like the evidence that I found in all my research,
and I mean, like this is all out there and
I'm happy to even share the links to any of
the listeners, but like the what I.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Found is that there's.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
You know, there's unfortunately the evidence and the efficacy and
the you know, evidence on psychiatric medication is very so
like controversial, and that it's there's a lot of you know,
like I mentioned like roughly one third will respond. One
third of people with the depression will respond to an antidepressant,
and then again like two thirds won't and then they
(14:43):
they need to find something else or maybe try another
medication or another medication. And and that's something which we
really wanted to provide people with an alternative, something that
could help them, you know, figure out like what are
maybe the are there maybe some issues with the basic
lifestyle things, how we could help Like I mean, like
what we do today as an example, we do blood
work for people checking that like what are some potential deficiencies,
(15:06):
and we always find deficiencies. People always have some deficiencies
that can actually as a soul cause be like you know,
as a soul kind of indication, be the reason for
someone's mental illness or at least a strong contributor like
be t well of dificions, it can actually cause mental
illness and psychosis even and it's very very common actually
(15:26):
among many people. Vitamin D deficiency, magnesium deficiency, iron B nine,
B six, you name it. There's a lot of deficiencies
that the population is struggling with or suffering from it.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
Most people are ignorant, they don't know that that's going on.
Speaker 3 (15:40):
So we basically wanted to provide an alternative, so not
to go down the route of like prescribing more medications,
but rather find other ways. And you know, of course,
if people are on medication, we all support that and
we'll be kind of helping helping them manage that and
whatever is needed. We have also psychiatrists, we can second
opinion stuff like that. But what we realized where we're
(16:00):
really getting the biggest bang for the buck quote unquote
is actually when we look at the lifestyle factors and
when we help people learn skills that they can use themselves,
you know, kind of skills that they learned to be
more empowered to understand, like what are the factors for
good mental health and how do I make sure that
I'm mentally well in the future as well.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
I just reminding everyone I'm speaking with Christian Ronta of
Merror Health. So all right, let's get a little more
specific here. Someone comes to you, who comes to you? Who?
Who is meror health for?
Speaker 3 (16:36):
Yeah, so seventy five percent of our our users or
patients or customers are basically women in their like thirty
to forty five year old so it's mainly women in
like working age women. That's the main population for us.
And then there's you know, you know, we we also
serve teams. We also serve serve people up until sixty
(16:57):
five year olds or sixty four year old olds, so
men like you know, working age populations and plus teams.
And that's the typical type of person. And we are
insurance covered by many of the large insurance like Signa, Etna,
up them others. And people find us, you know, through
various different ways and maybe get a referral to us
(17:17):
from a PCP, or maybe they find us on some
online resource and then they can schedule a call with
a provider so they can find a provider in their state.
They can schedule a call like an intake call for
an initial evaluation whether they you know, maybe need need
some support, need some help. And then we'll kind of
do some diagnostic interviews. We'll do some motivational interview just
(17:39):
to determine and understand like, hey, what's going on here,
like what do you need? What are you what are
you struggling with? And then might we be able to
help you.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
So first of all, primarily women. Does that track with
the proportion of people in therapy more women are doing therapy.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
Yes, it does track.
Speaker 3 (18:00):
So it's like it's roughly two thirds to my understanding,
two thirds women, one third men. So there's definitely like
generally speaking, more women going to therapy.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
And the people who are coming to you, are they
coming to you for variety of complaints or issues or
is it primarily depression?
Speaker 3 (18:20):
Ah, variety, So it's depression and anxiety are the biggest concerns.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
That's the biggest volume.
Speaker 3 (18:26):
We also have some PTSD, some bipolar, even ADHD, so yeah,
various different conditions, but we don't do eating disorders and schizophrenia,
so that's something which weak.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
And people are coming to you with the end refer out.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
Yeah, we would refer out people who are maybe like
not suited. So maybe if someone needs impatient, someone is
as you know, some like acute psychoses something like that,
we would refer out.
Speaker 1 (18:57):
Okay, And people are coming to you with the understand
that everything is done via telehealth.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
Yes, that is correct.
Speaker 3 (19:06):
So we are a virtual provider, so we have real providers,
real therapists, real doctors, psychiatrists and real human care coordinators
and navigators that help you know, provide care. So but
it's all done via an app and video calls and
chat and different you know, online resources.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
Okay, now, when you were putting this together, what was
your understanding in terms of you mentioned, uh, their onboarding
processes and procedures and questionnaires and so forth. Walk us
through what that looks like. And is that done with
a person, a live person.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
Yes, that is correct.
Speaker 3 (19:43):
So when someone signs up, they can schedule an intake
call and they basically first answer a few you know,
surveys in our app, and then they kind of you know,
get on a video call like this like a zoom
call with someone or with a provider I mean, and
then that's a master's level clinician I use to begin with.
And then you know, in that call you basically discuss
(20:04):
and evaluate, like what are the needs you have? It's
a diagnostic interview. It's usually you know, maybe a forty
five minute video call. And then then we craft a
custom care plan for each individual from that instance, and
then you know, the person can decide whether they want
to continue and start start treatment with us in at
the Metal Health clinic and then if they do, then
(20:26):
they will kind of start a program like in the app,
in our app where they basically can you know, be
in constant contact with the with the provider by a chat.
There's a peer support group in the app. There's also
a lot of lessons and resources.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
We will shape you.
Speaker 3 (20:42):
A biofeedback device in the mail for you to keep.
So there's lots of resources and in the app, and
you know, devices and other things that we kind of
include into the package for someone who then starts, let's say,
working on their depression. Maybe they have moderated severe depression
and they they've tried maybe other things. We have quite
a few people coming to us that have tried therapy
(21:03):
or they being on like five medications and just nothing
has really helped them, and then they they're looking for
something else. And then you know, very often we can
help these people. Not always, I mean, like nothing's perfect,
but very often.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
And that's something else. That differentiator is what is your
holistic approach? How do what does that look like?
Speaker 3 (21:24):
Yeah, that's definitely a differentiator. So like even starting from
just like doing blood work and looking at like what's
going on, like what are some physical issues that may
be present that we need to tackle first. So that's
something which we do with some patients, and then a
couple other things, like it's also just like dietary education,
so we we you know, we really educate people on
(21:44):
understanding like what are really important nutrients, what is the
body the brain need, and what are we may be
deficient in our society, you know, what are some like
things that are well known in research that like hey.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
Process foods, ultra process foods very.
Speaker 3 (21:58):
Very bad for mental health and things like this. Quite
simple stuff, but just like you know, comprehensive. And then
we also help people with sleep. So around ninety percent
of people who come to us have some sort of
sleep issues. So we then kind of we have like
content and support on sleep hygiene and like how do
you sleep better? How do you know, get sleep, how
(22:20):
do you fall asleep better, how do you stay asleep better?
You know, all sorts of different things like kind of
optimizing your sleep. That's a really important factor. And a
lot of people report that, like they've been had complete
insomnia when they came to us, and they've complete, reverse,
completely reversed that insomnia. So a lot a lot of
also great great feedback from people on improving their sleep.
Then we recommend exercise, So we kind of explain to
(22:43):
people that actually exercise is one of the most effective
single interventions for clinical depression. And you know you can
start by walking, but you know, if you want to
do weightlifting, that's going to be even way better than.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
We're just walking.
Speaker 3 (22:55):
So we just explain the science and we recommend these
things to people who are like so that a more
holistic perspective of the human experience.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
Yeah, yeah, it sounds amazing what it sounds like to me,
And correct me if I'm wrong here, But if one
goes to a therapist, a therapist is generally speaking, maybe
going to suggest some of those things that you've just
mentioned here. But from what you're saying, it sounds like
(23:25):
each of those topics you described are more so major
pieces of the puzzle that someone's going to get involved with,
which is different. It's not something that every therapist is
going to do. They're going to maybe suggest maybe could
do something about your sleep, But it sounds here this
(23:47):
is much more of a major intervention or piece of
the puzzle, if.
Speaker 3 (23:55):
You will, Yeah, no, I would agree. And it's also
that's one thing it's much more like a broader dive.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
Into each of these areas.
Speaker 3 (24:04):
But it's also the way how we help people through
bite sized chunks learn these concepts and practice and like
kind of get the knowledge, like become empowered with the knowledge.
So it's partially like the app has been designed to
be very like gamified educational experience, so it's very so
like a journey where you learn with others, with your provider,
(24:26):
there's a pure support. So it's kind of also part
of the whole thing is that these things are like
all of this information is available on the internet. I mean,
like you can read it in the library and it's
in the internet. People still don't like learn these things because.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
Of course we all know what we're supposed to do.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
Yeah, but behavior change is really hard.
Speaker 3 (24:45):
So what are major things What we're really really good
at is helping people with behavior change, like first of all,
explaining these concepts and then like helping people peace by piece,
week by week, learn these concepts and help them in
a these things to the extent that they're willing to
do that. Like we're not like forcing anyone to do anything.
It's just like suggesting and explaining and then it's people's
(25:09):
own of course, their own discretion on what they want
to do and.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
How the peer support component talk a little bit about
that because I think that's crucial.
Speaker 3 (25:18):
Yeah, so we, yeah, I agree, Like it's really important
to see that you're not alone, and especially like with
people with depression, very often they think that they're completely
alone in the world having this experience and that no
one can really understand them, and we build the peer
support group to show people that actually, there are like
a lot of people who are exactly struggling from the
(25:38):
same things that you are struggling from. So that's basically
the first piece. And you just see other people reflecting
on their journey in the mirror experience that hey, they
have similar experiences, like you can relate with these people,
and it's moderated, it's anonymous, so it's kind of very discrete.
And then there's also there's like these weekly themes and
(26:00):
people can share different insights when they're learning and going
through the materials each week they can share with other
people who are going through the same week at the
same time, so it's very so like peer learning and
peer sharing, and that's very helpful as well, because someone
may be you know, some people may be going through
like a week on worry, like how do I control
my excessive worrying?
Speaker 2 (26:20):
And that's like a CBT concept, caming behavioral therapy concept.
Speaker 3 (26:23):
And then we you know, in the peer support group,
there may be like good discussions on like hey, I'm
really struggling, you know, these kinds of worries and these
kinds of worries, and then someone else may chime in
and say like, hey, that's like exactly like me, and
like this is how I overcame it. Then and our
therapist will be chiming in and it's kind of like
much more theme based peer support group in a sense.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
So who do you have in terms of your staff
therapists you mentioned as a psychiatrist who's working for you?
And how do you find these people?
Speaker 3 (26:56):
Yeah, so we have providers across the country working for us,
which many of them have multiple licenses so they also
can work in multiple states so they're cross licensed. We
have psychiatrists. We have of course, like a technology team
like developers, software developers, engineers, you know, people like that,
and then just administrative people, finance.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
HR, human resources, things like this.
Speaker 3 (27:18):
Yeah, I mean, like we're a healthcare company.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
We've been building this for the last nine years. We've
been hiring people.
Speaker 3 (27:25):
We have offices in San Mateo in California in the
Bay Area, and one in Denver, Colorado, and one.
Speaker 2 (27:31):
Also in Helsinki, Finland.
Speaker 3 (27:32):
So we basically have over the years hired great people
who brought in more great people.
Speaker 1 (27:39):
Now, when I'm just curious, what's the philosophy that you
want these people to come in with. What are you
looking for?
Speaker 3 (27:49):
A very important for us is like our values. So
before we founded the company, we you know, sat together
with my co founders in a workshop where we went
through our values as individuals and why do we want
to do this work, Like why do we want to
build this company, why do we want to make this contribution?
And we basically all agreed on certain values and you know,
(28:10):
just to give you some examples, integrity, transparency, compassion. We
really wanted to build something all of our all of
my co founders are both of my co founders and myself,
we had all experienced mental health, mental illness in our families,
and we all felt that we want to build something
that could truly help help people, and we wanted to
challenge the current system because we felt that it's not adequate,
(28:31):
so we wanted to like create something new. So those
values are very important. The passion, you know, for all
of this work is, as an example, a very important
thing that we screen against when we hire people. And
just like people who are genuinely wanting to contribute and
who are eager to help. And there's a lot of
people at the company working for the company who have
had mental health struggles in their families or themselves, so
(28:53):
they truly understand and have experienced these things and how
how challenging they may be or can be.
Speaker 1 (28:59):
Love it, Christian. What's the best way for people to
learn more about you find out about Merrow Health.
Speaker 3 (29:05):
Yeah, well, Merrow dot us, slash podcast. That's that's a
good way to got to get started and check check
that out. That's a good page for general overview of
what Merrow Health is. And you know, if you're interested,
how to how to find us, how to maybe schedule
a call with a provider, or just to like learn more,
like what are we what are we doing?
Speaker 1 (29:24):
Okay, we'll have that linked up here at the show
notes page at the Trauma theapispodcast dot com. Uh, Christian,
appreciate you being here and sharing your story and that
of your brothers really inspiring. Appreciate you. Thanks guy, I
appreciate it all right man, We'll be in touch.
Speaker 2 (29:41):
Thank you.
Welcome to the Trauma Therivers podcast. My name is Guimingferson
and I interview incredible people who share the story of
how trauma has shaped their lives. And a big thank
you for sponsoring today's episode goes to my guest and
our sponsors. So five four, three, two and one, our folks,
(00:24):
welcome back to the podcast. Very excited to have as
my guest today. Christian Ranta. Christian, welcome, Thanks so much, guy,
I appreciate it. Thanks for having me all right. For
the past fifteen years, Christian has been driving healthcare innovation
across the US, Europe, and Asia. In two thousand and five,
he founded Mendor, a company that developed the groundbreaking glucose
monitor for people with type one diabetes, which earned the
(00:47):
first place in Delawat's Rising Stars Award in twenty fourteen.
During his time building Vendor, Christian experienced the tragic loss
of his older brother Peter to suicide, a turning point
that inspired him to found Meror Health in twenty sixteen,
a company now redefining mental health care for the modern world. Christian,
(01:07):
before we get going, once again, thank you for being
here to share with the listeners where you're from. Originally
and where you are currently?
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (01:15):
Sure, so I'm from Finland originally. I'm actually from Helsinki,
the capital of Finland. I was born and raised there.
I went to school there, studying in the UK for
some time, but I did my undergrad and graduate studies
in computer science and information systems mainly in Finland.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Okay, And is that where you are currently?
Speaker 3 (01:36):
Sorry, I'm currently in San Mateo in the you know,
in the San Francisco Oay. I've been leaving here since
twenty seventeen.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
Okay, So the obviously the bio gives us a sketch
of your background, but let's dive a little deeper here.
Talk about how you started getting into this field innovating
founding companies, and then we'll talk about what led you
(02:05):
to mental health.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
Sure, so, I mean like, I've been a technology enthusiast
from day one pretty much, and I actually joined when
I was still at school. I joined a clinical trial
software company that was building software for pharmaceutical companies to
conduct clinical trials in a more data driven way and
collect more data to get better insights for drug development
(02:30):
than approval processes. And basically that that was like an
eye opener for me, I got so excited, like that
was basically a place where you could combine technology while
doing good things to help people, you know, with healthcare,
And that really like hit the spot for me, and
I realized that this is going to be my career.
And after two years working for that company, after I
(02:51):
graduated from university, I actually then left the company and
founded my first own company, which was a medical device,
you know, the one that you mentioned. Look, I was
monitoring for type one diabetes patients.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Okay, so pretty amazing in and of itself. What was
the company called the Pharmaceutical Clinical Trial Company?
Speaker 2 (03:15):
What was that called CRF Health.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
CRF, and is that still in existence?
Speaker 3 (03:21):
It's nowadays called Signant Health, si NA and t Health.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
So it was crfalth.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
Okay. So now, obviously feel comfortable to talk about what
you want or you know, to the degree you want
and don't want, But can you talk a little bit
about your brother in his situation? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (03:42):
Sure?
Speaker 3 (03:43):
So yeah, So I mean, like that's that's what real
sparked me into mental health care. Why I wanted to
like move from physical health to mental health care. So
I sold my last company in twenty fifteen and then
wanted to go into mental health care full on. And
my brother, you know, he was unfortunately struggling from depression
on and off, and he had like some pretty severe
(04:04):
bouts and he was actually getting access to care like
he was he had you know, he had medication for
for years, and unfortunately, eventually the medication really made him,
made him worse, and he really didn't benefit. He got
a lot worse and then ended up committing suicide unfortunately.
So that was something which is kind of truly of
(04:27):
course very dramatic, but that truly changed me in a way,
that situation and the events there, that kind of thinking
about like what's really working in this system, Like so
many people are on these medications, and so many people
are doing therapy, and I mean, like now even much
more people doing therapy in the last five years, kind
of mental health becoming more mainstream, which is beautiful, but
(04:49):
like I really wanted to understand like what's going on
in mental health care. And I actually, before I founded
Mental Health, which is my current company, the Mental Health Company,
I actually went into like a lot of research myself,
so I really dug deep. I read a lot of literature,
like science journals, you know, clinical studies, of mental health
interventions meta analyzes. I really wanted to understand like what's
(05:12):
working in mental health care and what's not working and
where is psychiatry today because I wasn't like that familiar
with psychiatry. I'm not an MD, so I just like
really took a crash course in psychiatry and really wanted
to understand.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
And I talked to a lot.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
Of psychiatrists, like doctors, holistic doctors, integrative doctors, you know, professors, researchers, other.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
People going to therapy.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
I just did a lot of research for months, and
what I learned and realized was that actually was very
surprising that like, actually most people really don't get better
from medication. That there's only like roughly one third of
people who really respond to antidepressant medications, and then two
thirds sixty six percent do not, and they end up
(05:56):
like trying to find something else. And then like even
people who respond on the medication, most of them, like,
I don't know, between seventy to ninety percent. It's like
the data isn't like that accurate, but most people end
up getting side effects, either mild or very severe side effects.
And this is kind of like some of the things
that happened to my brother, and then it started clicking.
I was like, oh wow, like this like something that
(06:17):
we thought is actually so effective is really not effective
actually to be honest, if you look at the data honestly.
And then also what I realized is that when I
looked into therapy, I've done therapy myself. It was being
very very very beneficial for myself, and I really really
support therapy, and you know, we also offer therapy at
Mental Health, although with a lot of holistic elements included.
(06:40):
But what I realized also with therapy, when I looked
at the literature, there's great large meta analysis on like
psychotherapy CBT, DBT act all the different types of therapy,
and you know, they're usually equally effective, but they are
also really not that effective for clinical mental illness. They're
effective for psychological things and stress like kind of dealing
(07:00):
with life's challenges absolutely.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Can be very transformative.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
But like if we look at you know, the clinical
mental illness application of psychotherapy or talk therapy CBT, you know,
roughly forty percent of people will get at least a
fifty percent reduction for depression, meaning that like again, less
than half of the people who do psychotherapy for depression,
are really not getting like a real benefit from it.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
So one second, here are you talking about depression solely?
Speaker 2 (07:31):
This was like specifically data on depression.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
Then I looked anxiety and on the DSD and other things.
But what I'm just, I guess trying to say is
that it was a huge surprise to me when I
really kind of double clicked and dug into this industry
and into this science that actually what we consider like
something that's this is very effective. We have an effective
mental health system like bollocks like that gives my friends.
(07:54):
But that's not true, Like it's it's not true. It's
not working like we are. We're just like pretending that
it's working that well.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
So and that's what you know.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
My brother was lost to this thing, and I wanted
to I wanted to build something that could change this
because I think it's great. It helps you know, these
things may help some people. I again I mentioned I
benefited from therapy myself, but it's not like working for
a lot of people. And that's just that's just the data.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
What it says.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
When you started this journey of research, you said you
wanted to find out what was going on, what do
you mean specifically.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
Yeah, that's a good question.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
So I mean specifically that like what is what is
the current mental health system all about?
Speaker 2 (08:36):
You know, like why do we.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
Do therapy in the way we do, Why do we
prescribe the medications we do? Why is psychiatry the way
it is. I just like looked at the history and
like really dug deep to understand, like where's all this
is coming from? And I just realized that it all
started making more sense when I started digging deeper. And
one thing I also realized is that there's a complete
neglect of physical health implications in mental health.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
So, you know, the kind of disconnect.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
I'm sure many people have been, you know, hearing about
this lately or even a long time ago, that like
the mind that the body, you know, like the mind
is not separate from the body. So what I realized
is that mental health and psychiatry historically has completely ignored
the aspects of the physical health. So what I realized
is that there's actually a lot of research already out there.
(09:23):
It's not even reason that like inflammation in the body
got health issues, you know, in environmental toxins, heavy metals,
you know, in our you know, what we're constantly like
getting in from foods and anything, like you know, there's
the pregnant women shouldn't beating like tuna as an example. Unfortunately,
(09:43):
a lot of heavy metals, mercuries, things like this. I
started learning that all these things actually do make an
impact on mental health and also physical health. But like
the modern psychiatry is just completely ignoring all of this stuff.
So these were like some of the insights that came
to me, and like I was just baffled, like wow,
like this is something. And that's why I founded Mental Health,
(10:05):
which is basically like addressing all these things, and we
are a kind of a holistic mental health company, a
functional medicine approach.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
Okay, we're going to get into that now. When you're
speaking here, are you speaking about the mental health situation
in America or generally speaking across the world.
Speaker 3 (10:22):
I mean, like in the Western world. I mean it's
mainly the Western world, I'd say, I mean, like, of
course there's other areas where there's also mental illness, but
there's also rural there's actually this has also been researched,
and this is also pretty pretty fascinating. There's research by
one of our advisors doctor Marcus Rantala on like looking
at indigenous populations on some remote islands, like very isolated
(10:45):
populations that still live there today, and they have basically
zero mental illness, like zero, like nothing, and our western
population has like twenty five percent to thirty percent prevalence
of clinical mental health problems.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
Fascinating. So you go on this journey to find out
what the heck is going on with mental health. And
when you say mental health under that, you mean or
do you mean psychiatry is a branch talk therapy, somatic
therapies under that as well. So you got to a
(11:23):
point where you said, Okay, this is something's going on here,
What the hell is going on here? I want to
do something. How did merow health come about?
Speaker 3 (11:33):
Yeah, So from these realizations, I realized that like it
wasn't just my brother, that there's like coluntless my brother
is out there, quote unquote. So I realized that and
then basically, you know, figure it out that there's a
way from a lot of my previous learnings as an
entrepreneur and building medical devices and digital health applications, I
(11:54):
realized that there's a way to kind of build a
virtual clinic, an online clinic with real providers, where with
real therapists and psychiatrists and care navigators and people like that,
and couple that with technology and then build a curriculum
around that that would be more geared towards a holistic
education of mental health. What I mean by that is
(12:17):
that in addition or instead of just doing CBT, which
is something we also do because it's very effective and
very important, but how about like adding you know, some
basic information and understanding on diet, like what are like
brain health diets and what are like detrimental to brain
health and mental health. So like processed foods, we know
it really really well now that like the more processed
(12:39):
foods people assume, the more mental illness and physical illness
they have. And then you know, I just like combine
this as a whole with my co founders and with
couple of doctors. So we were roughly a five people
team initially some engineers, some you know, entrepreneurs, and then
one PhD MD psychiatrist, our first medical director. She had
(12:59):
done a lot of research on these topics as well,
and then we had a holistic MD more like an
integrative doctor, a primary care doctor, but with an integrative
training on top of that. So you know, we as
a team kind of came up with the initial concept
on how to build this and how to start how
to start addressing not only the mental health or the
(13:19):
cognitive sites of mental health problems, but go into also
the diet and sleep exercise recommendations. We've also built in
the biofeedback which is very effective for stress regulation. So
that's kind of like broadly where it all came from
and then how we started building it. And now we
operate in every state in the US as as a
telehealth provider or as an online mental health provider.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
Wow, in the wake of your research, what did you
come what kind of conclusion did you come to regarding
medication specifically for depression. Was that something you wanted to
improve upon or bann upon or we like, let's just
go a different route.
Speaker 3 (14:04):
Yeah, we we decided to go a different route. I mean,
like the evidence that I found in all my research,
and I mean, like this is all out there and
I'm happy to even share the links to any of
the listeners, but like the what I.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Found is that there's.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
You know, there's unfortunately the evidence and the efficacy and
the you know, evidence on psychiatric medication is very so
like controversial, and that it's there's a lot of you know,
like I mentioned like roughly one third will respond. One
third of people with the depression will respond to an antidepressant,
and then again like two thirds won't and then they
(14:43):
they need to find something else or maybe try another
medication or another medication. And and that's something which we
really wanted to provide people with an alternative, something that
could help them, you know, figure out like what are
maybe the are there maybe some issues with the basic
lifestyle things, how we could help Like I mean, like
what we do today as an example, we do blood
work for people checking that like what are some potential deficiencies,
(15:06):
and we always find deficiencies. People always have some deficiencies
that can actually as a soul cause be like you know,
as a soul kind of indication, be the reason for
someone's mental illness or at least a strong contributor like
be t well of dificions, it can actually cause mental
illness and psychosis even and it's very very common actually
(15:26):
among many people. Vitamin D deficiency, magnesium deficiency, iron B nine,
B six, you name it. There's a lot of deficiencies
that the population is struggling with or suffering from it.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
Most people are ignorant, they don't know that that's going on.
Speaker 3 (15:40):
So we basically wanted to provide an alternative, so not
to go down the route of like prescribing more medications,
but rather find other ways. And you know, of course,
if people are on medication, we all support that and
we'll be kind of helping helping them manage that and
whatever is needed. We have also psychiatrists, we can second
opinion stuff like that. But what we realized where we're
(16:00):
really getting the biggest bang for the buck quote unquote
is actually when we look at the lifestyle factors and
when we help people learn skills that they can use themselves,
you know, kind of skills that they learned to be
more empowered to understand, like what are the factors for
good mental health and how do I make sure that
I'm mentally well in the future as well.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
I just reminding everyone I'm speaking with Christian Ronta of
Merror Health. So all right, let's get a little more
specific here. Someone comes to you, who comes to you? Who?
Who is meror health for?
Speaker 3 (16:36):
Yeah, so seventy five percent of our our users or
patients or customers are basically women in their like thirty
to forty five year old so it's mainly women in
like working age women. That's the main population for us.
And then there's you know, you know, we we also
serve teams. We also serve serve people up until sixty
(16:57):
five year olds or sixty four year old olds, so
men like you know, working age populations and plus teams.
And that's the typical type of person. And we are
insurance covered by many of the large insurance like Signa, Etna,
up them others. And people find us, you know, through
various different ways and maybe get a referral to us
(17:17):
from a PCP, or maybe they find us on some
online resource and then they can schedule a call with
a provider so they can find a provider in their state.
They can schedule a call like an intake call for
an initial evaluation whether they you know, maybe need need
some support, need some help. And then we'll kind of
do some diagnostic interviews. We'll do some motivational interview just
(17:39):
to determine and understand like, hey, what's going on here,
like what do you need? What are you what are
you struggling with? And then might we be able to
help you.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
So first of all, primarily women. Does that track with
the proportion of people in therapy more women are doing therapy.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
Yes, it does track.
Speaker 3 (18:00):
So it's like it's roughly two thirds to my understanding,
two thirds women, one third men. So there's definitely like
generally speaking, more women going to therapy.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
And the people who are coming to you, are they
coming to you for variety of complaints or issues or
is it primarily depression?
Speaker 3 (18:20):
Ah, variety, So it's depression and anxiety are the biggest concerns.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
That's the biggest volume.
Speaker 3 (18:26):
We also have some PTSD, some bipolar, even ADHD, so yeah,
various different conditions, but we don't do eating disorders and schizophrenia,
so that's something which weak.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
And people are coming to you with the end refer out.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
Yeah, we would refer out people who are maybe like
not suited. So maybe if someone needs impatient, someone is
as you know, some like acute psychoses something like that,
we would refer out.
Speaker 1 (18:57):
Okay, And people are coming to you with the understand
that everything is done via telehealth.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
Yes, that is correct.
Speaker 3 (19:06):
So we are a virtual provider, so we have real providers,
real therapists, real doctors, psychiatrists and real human care coordinators
and navigators that help you know, provide care. So but
it's all done via an app and video calls and
chat and different you know, online resources.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
Okay, now, when you were putting this together, what was
your understanding in terms of you mentioned, uh, their onboarding
processes and procedures and questionnaires and so forth. Walk us
through what that looks like. And is that done with
a person, a live person.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
Yes, that is correct.
Speaker 3 (19:43):
So when someone signs up, they can schedule an intake
call and they basically first answer a few you know,
surveys in our app, and then they kind of you know,
get on a video call like this like a zoom
call with someone or with a provider I mean, and
then that's a master's level clinician I use to begin with.
And then you know, in that call you basically discuss
(20:04):
and evaluate, like what are the needs you have? It's
a diagnostic interview. It's usually you know, maybe a forty
five minute video call. And then then we craft a
custom care plan for each individual from that instance, and
then you know, the person can decide whether they want
to continue and start start treatment with us in at
the Metal Health clinic and then if they do, then
(20:26):
they will kind of start a program like in the app,
in our app where they basically can you know, be
in constant contact with the with the provider by a chat.
There's a peer support group in the app. There's also
a lot of lessons and resources.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
We will shape you.
Speaker 3 (20:42):
A biofeedback device in the mail for you to keep.
So there's lots of resources and in the app, and
you know, devices and other things that we kind of
include into the package for someone who then starts, let's say,
working on their depression. Maybe they have moderated severe depression
and they they've tried maybe other things. We have quite
a few people coming to us that have tried therapy
(21:03):
or they being on like five medications and just nothing
has really helped them, and then they they're looking for
something else. And then you know, very often we can
help these people. Not always, I mean, like nothing's perfect,
but very often.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
And that's something else. That differentiator is what is your
holistic approach? How do what does that look like?
Speaker 3 (21:24):
Yeah, that's definitely a differentiator. So like even starting from
just like doing blood work and looking at like what's
going on, like what are some physical issues that may
be present that we need to tackle first. So that's
something which we do with some patients, and then a
couple other things, like it's also just like dietary education,
so we we you know, we really educate people on
(21:44):
understanding like what are really important nutrients, what is the
body the brain need, and what are we may be
deficient in our society, you know, what are some like
things that are well known in research that like hey.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
Process foods, ultra process foods very.
Speaker 3 (21:58):
Very bad for mental health and things like this. Quite
simple stuff, but just like you know, comprehensive. And then
we also help people with sleep. So around ninety percent
of people who come to us have some sort of
sleep issues. So we then kind of we have like
content and support on sleep hygiene and like how do
you sleep better? How do you know, get sleep, how
(22:20):
do you fall asleep better, how do you stay asleep better?
You know, all sorts of different things like kind of
optimizing your sleep. That's a really important factor. And a
lot of people report that, like they've been had complete
insomnia when they came to us, and they've complete, reverse,
completely reversed that insomnia. So a lot a lot of
also great great feedback from people on improving their sleep.
Then we recommend exercise, So we kind of explain to
(22:43):
people that actually exercise is one of the most effective
single interventions for clinical depression. And you know you can
start by walking, but you know, if you want to
do weightlifting, that's going to be even way better than.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
We're just walking.
Speaker 3 (22:55):
So we just explain the science and we recommend these
things to people who are like so that a more
holistic perspective of the human experience.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
Yeah, yeah, it sounds amazing what it sounds like to me,
And correct me if I'm wrong here, But if one
goes to a therapist, a therapist is generally speaking, maybe
going to suggest some of those things that you've just
mentioned here. But from what you're saying, it sounds like
(23:25):
each of those topics you described are more so major
pieces of the puzzle that someone's going to get involved with,
which is different. It's not something that every therapist is
going to do. They're going to maybe suggest maybe could
do something about your sleep, But it sounds here this
(23:47):
is much more of a major intervention or piece of
the puzzle, if.
Speaker 3 (23:55):
You will, Yeah, no, I would agree. And it's also
that's one thing it's much more like a broader dive.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
Into each of these areas.
Speaker 3 (24:04):
But it's also the way how we help people through
bite sized chunks learn these concepts and practice and like
kind of get the knowledge, like become empowered with the knowledge.
So it's partially like the app has been designed to
be very like gamified educational experience, so it's very so
like a journey where you learn with others, with your provider,
(24:26):
there's a pure support. So it's kind of also part
of the whole thing is that these things are like
all of this information is available on the internet. I mean,
like you can read it in the library and it's
in the internet. People still don't like learn these things because.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
Of course we all know what we're supposed to do.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
Yeah, but behavior change is really hard.
Speaker 3 (24:45):
So what are major things What we're really really good
at is helping people with behavior change, like first of all,
explaining these concepts and then like helping people peace by piece,
week by week, learn these concepts and help them in
a these things to the extent that they're willing to
do that. Like we're not like forcing anyone to do anything.
It's just like suggesting and explaining and then it's people's
(25:09):
own of course, their own discretion on what they want
to do and.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
How the peer support component talk a little bit about
that because I think that's crucial.
Speaker 3 (25:18):
Yeah, so we, yeah, I agree, Like it's really important
to see that you're not alone, and especially like with
people with depression, very often they think that they're completely
alone in the world having this experience and that no
one can really understand them, and we build the peer
support group to show people that actually, there are like
a lot of people who are exactly struggling from the
(25:38):
same things that you are struggling from. So that's basically
the first piece. And you just see other people reflecting
on their journey in the mirror experience that hey, they
have similar experiences, like you can relate with these people,
and it's moderated, it's anonymous, so it's kind of very discrete.
And then there's also there's like these weekly themes and
(26:00):
people can share different insights when they're learning and going
through the materials each week they can share with other
people who are going through the same week at the
same time, so it's very so like peer learning and
peer sharing, and that's very helpful as well, because someone
may be you know, some people may be going through
like a week on worry, like how do I control
my excessive worrying?
Speaker 2 (26:20):
And that's like a CBT concept, caming behavioral therapy concept.
Speaker 3 (26:23):
And then we you know, in the peer support group,
there may be like good discussions on like hey, I'm
really struggling, you know, these kinds of worries and these
kinds of worries, and then someone else may chime in
and say like, hey, that's like exactly like me, and
like this is how I overcame it. Then and our
therapist will be chiming in and it's kind of like
much more theme based peer support group in a sense.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
So who do you have in terms of your staff
therapists you mentioned as a psychiatrist who's working for you?
And how do you find these people?
Speaker 3 (26:56):
Yeah, so we have providers across the country working for us,
which many of them have multiple licenses so they also
can work in multiple states so they're cross licensed. We
have psychiatrists. We have of course, like a technology team
like developers, software developers, engineers, you know, people like that,
and then just administrative people, finance.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
HR, human resources, things like this.
Speaker 3 (27:18):
Yeah, I mean, like we're a healthcare company.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
We've been building this for the last nine years. We've
been hiring people.
Speaker 3 (27:25):
We have offices in San Mateo in California in the
Bay Area, and one in Denver, Colorado, and one.
Speaker 2 (27:31):
Also in Helsinki, Finland.
Speaker 3 (27:32):
So we basically have over the years hired great people
who brought in more great people.
Speaker 1 (27:39):
Now, when I'm just curious, what's the philosophy that you
want these people to come in with. What are you
looking for?
Speaker 3 (27:49):
A very important for us is like our values. So
before we founded the company, we you know, sat together
with my co founders in a workshop where we went
through our values as individuals and why do we want
to do this work, Like why do we want to
build this company, why do we want to make this contribution?
And we basically all agreed on certain values and you know,
(28:10):
just to give you some examples, integrity, transparency, compassion. We
really wanted to build something all of our all of
my co founders are both of my co founders and myself,
we had all experienced mental health, mental illness in our families,
and we all felt that we want to build something
that could truly help help people, and we wanted to
challenge the current system because we felt that it's not adequate,
(28:31):
so we wanted to like create something new. So those
values are very important. The passion, you know, for all
of this work is, as an example, a very important
thing that we screen against when we hire people. And
just like people who are genuinely wanting to contribute and
who are eager to help. And there's a lot of
people at the company working for the company who have
had mental health struggles in their families or themselves, so
(28:53):
they truly understand and have experienced these things and how
how challenging they may be or can be.
Speaker 1 (28:59):
Love it, Christian. What's the best way for people to
learn more about you find out about Merrow Health.
Speaker 3 (29:05):
Yeah, well, Merrow dot us, slash podcast. That's that's a
good way to got to get started and check check
that out. That's a good page for general overview of
what Merrow Health is. And you know, if you're interested,
how to how to find us, how to maybe schedule
a call with a provider, or just to like learn more,
like what are we what are we doing?
Speaker 1 (29:24):
Okay, we'll have that linked up here at the show
notes page at the Trauma theapispodcast dot com. Uh, Christian,
appreciate you being here and sharing your story and that
of your brothers really inspiring. Appreciate you. Thanks guy, I
appreciate it all right man, We'll be in touch.
Speaker 2 (29:41):
Thank you.
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